Hey guys - so I'm basically a clueless Yank so if you feel like indulging me, I'd be really interested in anything y'all can tell me about your history, culture, food, music, best players, famous people, etc. Do most of you live in the US? Is there a very large Bosnian community here?

Hey guys - so I'm basically a clueless Yank so if you feel like indulging me, I'd be really interested in anything y'all can tell me about your history, culture, food, music, best players, famous people, etc. Do most of you live in the US? Is there a very large Bosnian community here?

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Haha, cool question man, thanks for asking.

Well Bosnia is a small country in south-east Europe, used to be part of the old Yugoslavia. Our language is Slavic, very similar to Russian, Polish, etc.

It's related to Croatian and Serbian, basically the same language with a few differences. Food is a sort of Turkish/European mixture, lots of meats and breads used.

Hey guys - so I'm basically a clueless Yank so if you feel like indulging me, I'd be really interested in anything y'all can tell me about your history, culture, food, music, best players, famous people, etc. Do most of you live in the US? Is there a very large Bosnian community here?

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Brief history.

Bosnia was and is the cultural center of Europe. It is the point where the 3 largest religions meet, Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

During the medieval ages Bosnia existed as a small nation and had it's own church which was excommunicated by Rome and it was called the Bosnian Church or something along those lines. Before the church the people that lived there were pagans.

Later on the Ottomans invaded Bosnia and took it from the Slavs who were Serbian and converted many people to Islam. This was at the same time that Venice held unto Ragusa (not to be confused with Sicilian Ragusa) and expanded Catholicism in the northern Balkans.

Now you had Catholics, Muslims and Slavs all in one place.

WWI comes around and you have the Serbs (Slavs) clamoring for independence and they shoot the arch duke, Franz Ferdinand. Yugoslavia is formed immediately after WWI and in WWII it was stomped out by the Nazi's and Italians which gave rise to the Partisans who were the first resistance fighters in Europe. Before the Poles and the French as a matter of fact. Partisan is actually a Serbo-Croatian word.

So is Balkanization. Which brings me to modern times. The leader of the Partisans Marshal Broz Tito ruled with an iron fist and prosperity came to the land. After he died in '80 he left a political vacuum which was filled by criminals and war mongers such as Milosevic, Izetbegovic and Tudman. These three stooges ended up tearing up the country mainly due to Milosevic's power hungry nature and Slovenia's constant bitching. Slovenia was first to go from Yugoslavia. Then Croatia which Milosevic ordered paramilitary units to attack civilians and then it was Bosnia, who drew the short stick.

Unlike Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia, Bosnia was unique in the fact that all three peoples lived there. Muslims, Croats and Serbs. This led to a three way (not the good kind) civil war which turned into a 2-1 civil war at one point.

Milosevic was hell bent on not letting Bosnia go and he put in Radovan Karadzic a man so racist not even Al Sharpton could break him, in charge. Karadzic wanted to create a greater Serbia out of Bosnia and eliminate all the Croats and Muslims.

Bosnia had other plans and fought back. I don't know a Bosnian who's parents were not in the war. In some cases, such as mine, all the males of age go to war.

Things happen, people die, some starve, others get raped, some people get arrested, the economy turns upside down a couple of times and we get Dzeko.

As for food, it's a variety of Russian, Turkish and Italian. It is extremely unique and cannot be found anywhere else.

The women are hairy and have deep voices, some have mustaches and other mustaches on their vageens.

Music is mainly folk and some dance, there was quite a market back in the day for rock 'n roll, but now there aren't that many good bands.

Other then that you will have to get specific because I can go all night like this.

If you want to know anything else, just ask. Large Bosnian communities are in St. Louis, Chicago, and New York.

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Do they tend to live in the same places in these cities or scattered? In New York, just as a few examples, it seems the Croatian community is more scattered around the region but seems to maintain close ties to each other (I could be wrong and there is a CroatiaTown somewhere), while there is a large Polish community that lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

During the medieval ages Bosnia existed as a small nation and had it's own church which was excommunicated by Rome and it was called the Bosnian Church or something along those lines. Before the church the people that lived there were pagans.

Later on the Ottomans invaded Bosnia and took it from the Slavs who were Serbian and converted many people to Islam. This was at the same time that Venice held unto Ragusa (not to be confused with Sicilian Ragusa) and expanded Catholicism in the northern Balkans.

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Are there any remnants of the pre-Ottoman invasion culture, history, ethnicity, etc. existing today?

So is Balkanization. Which brings me to modern times. The leader of the Partisans Marshal Broz Tito ruled with an iron fist and prosperity came to the land. After he died in '80 he left a political vacuum which was filled by criminals and war mongers such as Milosevic, Izetbegovic and Tudman. These three stooges ended up tearing up the country mainly due to Milosevic's power hungry nature and Slovenia's constant bitching. Slovenia was first to go from Yugoslavia. Then Croatia which Milosevic ordered paramilitary units to attack civilians and then it was Bosnia, who drew the short stick.

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I've seen pictures of pre- and post- war from the region which are heart breaking.

Unlike Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia, Bosnia was unique in the fact that all three peoples lived there. Muslims, Croats and Serbs. This led to a three way (not the good kind) civil war which turned into a 2-1 civil war at one point.

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I guess this may answer my question from before - are there lots of tensions between all three groups there today? Is it cultural animosity or mostly religious? Here I'm showing my real ignorance - are all these ethnic groups racially identical?

Nice to see this place getting more active. Hopefully Zeljo Fanatico and Vitez put in alot of input here over the next few days, I see that many people are viewing our section now so we're making progress, guys!

So basically, my old account (Blue Soldier) wouldn't let me post, have an avatar, have a signature, etc. so my brother decided to give me his account because he knew I'd use it more than he would. So here I am, Velez Red, as Bosnian Diamond.